TechniScan has been newly awarded US Patent for 3-D Breast Imaging System which will protect TechniScan's new way to image, biopsy and treat breast cancer. The US Patent 7,699,783 B2 titled 'Method for Imaging and Treating a Breast' covers the company's design of a 3-D, Warm Bath Ultrasound (WBU) system that provides breast imaging with scanning system.
TechniScan said that a vital element of the new patent is the table design of the WBU system, which rises above the water bath tank after the scan. The functionality has three key benefits which include the woman remains on the same table for diagnostics and treatment, it maintains the known position of the tumor or lesion and allows the three-dimensional image to be utilised to guide treatment instruments.
The WBU system is radiation-free and produces three sets of images that utilise reflection ultrasound, speed of sound and attenuation of sound, resulting in an ultrasound computed tomography image. The goal of the 360-degree, high-resolution images is to provide new diagnostic information to doctors who seek to find cancers when they are smaller and easier to treat.
TechniScan said that recently the algorithms that gather and process the complex set of data generated in the WBU system were also awarded a patent. The patent will protect the company’s intellectual property and it utilises the entire ultrasound spectrum to form its images of the breast.
Barry Hanover, chief operating officer at TechniScan and one of the inventors of the system, said: “In essence, our WBU system provides a 3-D navigational map of the breast, and this could be useful to breast surgeons, radiologists and oncologists. The fact that our table can also be raised, with the breast maintained in the same position as during the 3-D image capture, could improve the efficiency and accuracy of biopsies and minimally invasive treatment of cancers.”
Yuri Parisky, medical imaging director at Mammoth Hospital in Calif, said: “Imaging of the non-compressed pendant breast, similar to positioning for breast MRI, provides reproducible, 3-D anatomically accurate detail. It is the ideal position to image the breast.”